AP McCoy admitted he cried tears of anguish after shocking the sporting world with his plans to retire following 20 years at the top.

Pulling up after riding his 200th winner of the season, the National Hunt kingpin delivered the news that no-one had been expecting live on Channel 4 Racing.

And the announcement that his 20th consecutive jockeys’ title, rubber-stamped when the campaign ends on April 25, will also be his last took everyone by surprise.

McCoy’s legendary refusal to accept defeat has seen him smash every record in the book – and made him the most formidable opponent the winter code has ever known.

But the iron man of the weighing room confessed that emotion got the better of him as the realisation his days in the saddle were numbered had finally sunk in.

“I cried at home and I’m sure I’ll do it again,” McCoy said yesterday.

“I’m going to have my moments, because it’s something that I love doing – I love riding horses.

“I’m retiring in a way and at a time that people will say, ‘why are you retiring?’ rather than, ‘why are you not retiring?’ That makes it tougher.

“It’s a day that I’ve been dreading, but I’m a realist – I know I can’t keep going forever.

“Time waits for no man, especially not in sport.”

McCoy had first raised the prospect of retirement with boss JP McManus after Champion Hurdler Jezki had triumphed at the Punchestown Festival last May.

But he kept his plans a secret from his agent Dave Roberts. and even his wife Chanelle, until he broke the news last Monday evening.

McCoy after winning the Grand National on Don't Push It

The 40-year-old, in his usual unstoppable form with a double for McManus at Leopardstown yesterday – 4-1 favourite Sort It Out landed a gamble before Carlingford Lough gave McCoy a first-ever success in the featured Hennessy Gold Cup – said: “Even my mum and dad found out on television!”

Although the curtain comes down on the National Hunt campaign with the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown Park in 75 days’ time, McCoy, sure to be in action at the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals this spring, has not ruled out an on-the-spot retirement before April 25.

“I had it at the back of my mind that I would like to have retired on a winner,” he added.

“Whether I carry on to the last day of the season or whether it will have happened before that depends on how I decide the end should come.”

Barry Geraghty, a regular winner in McManus’s silks, is the hot favourite to succeed McCoy in one of the most prized jobs in National Hunt racing.

And Richard Johnson, perennial runner-up to his friend and rival in the jockeys’ table, is odds-on to clinch a first riders’ title in 2015-16.

“If there is justice I’d like to be going to Sandown at the end of next season with Richard Johnson as champion jockey,” said McCoy.

“He has driven me to the end of the earth.”

Only one man believes his feats of over 4,300 winners and 20 championships could one day be equalled – McCoy himself.

“No matter how successful you are – how much you win in sport – there is always going to be someone that is better than you,” he argued.